11b - Horizons

Let’s have a chat about Horizons. Odd things. As an analogy they represent the extent of your world - being as far as you can see. What you can surmise about a horizon is that there is something on the other side. You just can’t see it right now. You can approach a horizon in two ways.
1. You can rise up, high above wherever you were as if in a hot air balloon and through this greater height you might effect a great change in your horizon too.
2. The other is to go right up to it. Depending on where it is it may change with each step towards it you take (curvature of the earth type) or it may remain resolutely the same until you are super close and then suddenly it will rush away and settle like the end of a rainbow oh so much further away and out of touch.

Either method is equally good. If there was a qualitative difference between them it could best be described as the difference between strategy and tactics. Strategy is about a longer view while tactics require much quicker reactions. For me a nice thing about horizons is that while they define the extent of your world they are never barriers or boundaries. The minute you arrive at them they effectively melt away revealing a whole new world to explore. They’re just hiding something from you. As horizons are generally crossable the limitation they emplace on you is generally just on your own imagination. That said nothing stops one’s imagination from wandering over a hill and having a fantasy! In fact at times it’s quite nice to just imagine what is over that horizon rather than really climbing to the ridge or digging out that hot-air balloon.
Though on a personal level I’m all for going and having a proper look because I quite do believe this world is a far more amazing place than my own imagination can conjure and thus I am constantly surprised by it and richly rewarded for extra-horizon peeking. And experience is the mother of all wisdom.



An interesting note: horizons tend to be on mountains. Unless you’re on a ‘valley-trended’ elevated area in front of a very wide valley plain when only the curvature of the earth supplies your horizon. So if you do look to the horizon generally you are looking up in life, to a time when after a period of success or endeavour a new world will be yours (for better or worse). Not a bad trend or general rule of thumb. Keep your gaze on the horizon. But do keep an eye on your footing. No need to stumble when the going is good but more important not to stumble when the lie of the land is treachorous.

And who would not want to have a horizon. Imagine never being able to wonder what was just over THAT ridge or what’s behind THAT dune. No thanks. A lot of my forward momentum is created by curiosity and the draw to the unknown. Many will see that as good argument to back the claim that I will never be happy with what I have etc. And my answer to that is absolutely I am happy with what I have but I will not remain happy if it all remains exactly the same. I am an experience-driven individual yet recognise even the smallest changes can be worth experiencing.
I’m also very aware that nothing remains the same – everything is bobbing along the river of time so every moment we experience is different from the last and it may be worth having continuity too.



Thinking back over the period known to me as E4 ( which began 29 March 2006 and includes E4-B and E4-B2) there have been many thunderously momentous occasions. Such as 2 Burning Man excursions, Quintiple Inter-continental Travel, Inter-dimensional Great Love-mongering, Divine Moments of Truth, Extreme Moments of Sleep-deprivation, the sweetness of First Kisses, the process culminating in my name in “Lights”, the Hoffman Process and surfing a wave for more than 30 seconds! Each of those moments have been a stratospheric expedition in the Hot Space-Balloon of my life. From each I have seen far beyond all my previous horizons. But as after each moment I sink back to the ground of my default reality I have to rely on my memory as to what is over those horizons.
Still having seen over them once, I feel much better placed to travel in the direction of the horizon I would like to cross with a better choice of the valley I would like to explore or reside in next. Useful.

Yet at times rather than being high (sic) I felt I was pretty damn close to those horizons. Nestled up against them. Sneaky like a hungry Bedouin sniper spying on a camel train winding its way to an oasis in the Promised Land. And then I’d find myself thinking, “What the hell, I’m just going to step over this horizon and into that other world”. Liberation! I could see a different place to be, could see the way to get there and had the courage to just take that step towards my goal. As I crossed that threshold the world would shift and rearrange itself with me as the new centre. Its obviously not that I am the centre of THE universe but I am the most important thing in my own life (for now – I am sure it is possible for this to change...). My Bedouin would leave his rifle, and in taking one single step be in the lush palm forest on the shores of an abundant world fresh and ready for an entirely new type of pirate! Or knight, cowboy, vampire or muppet.
But I also note that despite the wonder of all those moments I still choose to measure the period back to that previous eclipse in Turkey. And so I note its full moon tonight. Thus I am only half a lunation from that next entrancing eclipse and entering the period known to me as E5. And this cycle has been 2.5 years. Nice.
I am horizon hunting tomorrow so I’ll be away from the life-support system (laptop) and I just wanted to put something out to all of you who are important to me in case I do not get another chance before 1 August.
Clear Skies for the sake of restoring Mongolian interest in eclipses
Doctor Lobster